15-year-old teenager Victor Garcia, a resident of the Eastern Zone of São Paulo, was one of the winners of the ETHBogotá Hackathon, in Colombia, competing with 900 other hackers.
Victor’s team, consisting of four other Brazilians, accepted the award by developing a gamified reading incentive platform with a kind of read to earn (read to win)the user is rewarded in tokens for each book or page read.
The result came on the final day of the event after an intense 36-hour marathon of programming and development.
The hackathon was the first of ETHGlobal in Colombia and the second hackathon in which Victor participates. The first was also promoted by the Ethereum network during the Ethereum Sao Paulowhere he met Carol Santos and the NGO Educar+, which was responsible for making the young man’s dream come true.
Brazilian Teen Who Won Ethereum Community Hack Marathon Was Supported by an NGO
ETHBogotá was the first event of the week of events on the Ethereum network in Colombia, for a total of nine days, followed by ETHLatam and DEVCON. Victor’s team was one of 5 awarded by Chainlink and received the amount of U$1,000.
Educar+ and Victor crossed paths during their first Hackathon. When Carol Santos, CEO of the NGO that brings education and web 3.0 to the Complexo do Chapadão community in Rio de Janeiro, heard about the story of the young programmer, self-taught and public school, and noted that all he needs had a chance.
“When I heard Victor’s story, I saw a boy with extreme potential being wasted due to lack of opportunity. In the first moment I activated everyone on my network and especially on web3, I shared their story, it was enough.”
Victor is a public school student in Brazil and self-taught, already knows 5 programming languages and is considered a promising young man for the cryptocurrency market.
Educar+ is an NGO from Favela do Final Feliz, in Complexo do Chapadão, Rio de Janeiro, and its mission is to change the lives of children and adolescents through culture, technology and education.
Community is the key to helping young people
The NGO’s help was fundamental to help Victor Garcia get to know cryptocurrencies better and reach Colombia, compete with others and emerge victorious.
Still, there were many companies from the Ethereum community that helped in the process, which Carol Santos thanked after the event.
“We couldn’t have won an international hacking marathon without the help of the community. It wouldn’t do us any good to get tickets to the Hackathon in Bogotá if he didn’t have a way to support himself or there.”
Several young Brazilians express an interest in learning more about cryptocurrencies, an experience that may motivate others to pursue their dreams with digital financial technology.
Source: Live Coins
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
